360 deg shutter angles - whats the go at the moment ?

Chris Millar · November 24, 2012

Hello all,

short version:

What are the current camera options for HD acquisition where the shutter angle can be set to 360degs ?

Longer verison for those interested:

I have a VFX/coding project on the go here and I have an odd artefact/bug that I cant seem to remove from my output, after some deep hyper-dimensional playing of Angry Birds Star Wars I came to be thinking that it might be the source footage at fault (or more to the point, I was at fault for not realising that it would be an issue). Specifically, the the camera used a 180deg shutter and that what I really needed was complete motion capture across the full frame period, i.e. a 360deg sample.

I'd like to try an A-B comparison and my query the good folk at these forums is:

What are the current camera options for HD acquisition where the shutter angle can be set to 360degs ? Obviously (well, it's obvious to me) it needs to be progressive scan.

Some slightly more fuzzy restrictions and allowances follow:

It'd be great if it could go 4k, but 1080p is fine (but not that consumer gunk that outputs a 1080 frame that actually isn't 1080 res).

It'd be really nice if it could do 200fps+ at 1080p (720 ok yeh, cool too)

Now I start to show my ignorance of HD workflow ... I'm working on the data in it's direct 24-bit state, i.e. 3 channels of 0-255 values, this is in my own data-structure so it's effectively no longer 'video' and containers/codecs/and whatnot no longer apply - the important point I'm trying to make is that whatever it takes me to get those numbers from the camera and into my mac needs to be relatively painless :ph34r:

If not 360 I'm interested in how close I can get also

I'd hire, not buy

Any tips appreciated. :)

Nate Opgenorth · November 24, 2012

I don't follow but if you want a 360shutter angle or close basically lowest shutter speed possible....so if your at 30fps go to 1/30th (or 1/33th on some cameras). If your shooting 24fps then go to 1/24th or 1/30th to get close...

Chris Millar · November 24, 2012

To frame my question in terms of exposure:

What cameras are capable of having the frame period and the exposure time being set to the same number?

(framePeriod = frameRate^-1)

I would search this out, but I'm stuck on crap internet and about one website is all I can handle ! Maybe it's as simple an answer as: most of them ?

Epic, Phantom, Alexa ? 5D ? :)

Should pre-empt this also: I am aware of rolling shutter and yes it will be an issue, but with higher frame rates and some frame-blending hoohah I can do in code I can get around that

Edited November 24, 2012 by Chris Millar